A 16-year-old Spaniard has had a sex change operation, becoming the country's first minor to undergo a procedure that few countries in the world allow for people so young, the patient's doctor has announced.

Twenty-six operations put healthy kidneys into 13 desperately ill people: Doctors have just performed a record-setting kidney swap, part of a pioneering effort to expand transplants to patients who too often never qualify.

Bone marrow transplants, already used to treat some children with sickle cell disease, also may cure some adults with this deadly genetic defect that causes red blood cells to contort, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday.

Twin Bangladeshi girls who were joined at the top of their heads and shared blood vessels and brain tissue were successfully separated Tuesday after 25 hours of delicate surgery, hospital officials said.